Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The director talks about his animation film Kamlu with Shilpa JamkhandikarAfter almost four years, one of India’s most acclaimed film-makers is back, but don’t expect another Ardh Satya or a Dhrohkaal from firebrand director Govind Nihalani. This time round, his focus of attention is Kamlu, a baby camel, the protagonist of his new animation film. “I have always wanted to do animation, but earlier the budgets and the technology were a constraint. Now, however, we have so many facilities at our calling that this was the time for me to jump into animation,” Nihalani says.Kamlu, which is about a baby camel who gets lost in the desert and finds new friends in the process, is currently being given shape in an animation studio in Chennai. Nihalani says the process has been a learning experience for him. “After my 2004 release Dev, I took a break, and worked on my animation project, because I knew it would take a lot of time. I do have a few actors in mind for the films, but everything is still in its primary stages,” he adds. Things, he says have changed considerably in the last three years. (Courtsy DNAIndia)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Rajnikanth will be seen adorning the character of a charming Hero in Sultan which is going to be an out and out action flick set up in an ancient background with a gripping storyline. The duration of the second trailer released is 1 min 43 sec. It unveils the look of Rajnikanth in the movie, the set up of the period depicted and stylization used and shows the fight sequence between Sultan and his enemies.

Original Sketches:

Karthik G, Chief Marketing Office of Ocher Studios and Executive Producer of Sultan, said, "This is the first time in Tamil Cinema that somebody has launched a trailer and used it as the starting point of the movie, otherwise in Chennai it is always some pooja or havan. We have initiated our project with teasers and trailers and that's something novel here. We have put in a lot of planning to strategically schedule the release of trailers."

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Mumbai based 'Redchillies.vfx' has won Bollywood's popular Screen Awards for Best Visual Effects for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer mega blockbuster 'Om Shanti Om'. The other movies nominated in the same category were Chak De! India & Taare Zameen Par.Delighted on winning the award, Redchillies.vfx COO Keitan Yadav shared with AnimationXpress.com, "Definitely we are excited and happy after winning this award. We are being nominated for the award from last three years but have won it for the first time. Also it was an honour to be nominated for two films (also Chakde India) in the same category. Explaining the VFX shots, he said, "The movie had a retro song - 'Dhoom tana' which consisted of high-end VFX work and also, there were a lot of complex sequences which made the work varied and unique," he added.

Stage 1

The team had to locate the original footage of the films they had short listed. The three song sequences appeared in Amrapali (1966, Sunil Dutt and Vyjayantimala), Saccha Jhutha (1970, Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz) and Jay-Vijay (1977, Jeetendra and Jayashree T). Not always in the best condition, the original footage had to be scanned, carefully restored and cleaned up to the best possible quality on the computers.Stage 2

Keeping in mind, the set of the films, the camera angles and the lighting, Deepika Padukone was shot in present dressed in similar costumes as the yesteryear actresses to further enhance that ‘70’s look. She pretended to dance with the actors by romancing an imaginary hero.Stage 3

The original actresses, i.e. Vyjanthimala, Mumtaz and Jayashree T. were removed from the sequences. All this of course, was done with the help of the Red Chillies’ VFX (visual effects) team. Sequences where the camera was moving and the actors were in contact were specially chosen, so as to provide opportunity for Deepika to dance along with them as opposed to posing. Things to note were the eye contact between the actors, physical touch, lighting continuity, perspective matching, skin tones matching, color matching, etc.Stage 4

Deepika’s footage was pasted in place of the actual actresses’ footage. The technical term for this is ‘compositing’. Thus, it seems that she has been locked in the same frame as legends, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra. The song truly was a treat to watch. And now some of our wonder and amazement has been satisfied. Keitan Yadav, COO of Red Chillies VFX asserted that the idea was to give a feel of the era and is glad that they seemed to have succeeded.He adds that “there are about 200 additional shots in the film where VFX is used like the snow-flakes in the globe, SRK and Deepika turning real and dancing in the globe, the Mother India fire sequence, Shantipriya’s death sequence and the climax sequence.”Image Courtesy: ‘The Making of Om Shanti Om’ published by Om Books International

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Idiom Design & Consulting, a design solutions provider, has developed the visual identity and branding for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. According to a press release, “The identity design truly embodies a global approach with the Indian spirit thus, providing inspiration for the future generation”. The logo for the Delhi Commonwealth Games was inspired by the Chakra, the national symbol of freedom, unity and power. “Spiralling upwards, the logo depicts the growth of India into a proud, vibrant nation, her billion people coming together to fulfil their true destinies.” Mr Viren Razdan, President, Idiom Design & Consulting, said, “The identity for the games is rooted and deep, on one hand, and vibrant and futuristic, on the other. Just like our nation!” (courtsy The Hindu Business Line)

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a HUGE collection of movie information. They catalog every pertinent detail about a movie, from who was in it, to who made it, to trivia about it, to filming locations, and even where you can find reviews and fan sites on the web. The IMDb people present this information in a manner that is easy to search and access.The IMDb started as a hobby project by an international group of movie fans(history of IMDb), essentially something by movie fans for movie fans.IMDb creators say "We are some of our site's most hardcore users. Our managing director claims to have seen over seven thousand movies. Most of our people could write or win a movie trivia game show. One of our proposed slogans was "we just love movies." As big and intimidating as we may seem because of our millions of monthly visitors, we're just a bunch of hardcore movie fans who still can't get over the fact that we're getting paid to keep improving this tool we use so much for our own pleasure."